American Gods is Turning Media Into a Millennial

It truly sucks that Gillian Anderson won’t be reprising her role as shape-shifting deity Media on American Gods. But it sounds like the producers of season two are taking the opportunity to add a similar character that will present the same kind of ideas, but in a totally different and fresh way.

With Anderson exiting the series, co-star Kristin Chenoweth in limbo, and a new showrunner in the mix, it’s safe to say we’re a bit wait-and-see about American Gods season two. But a new report at TVLine has some very intriguing information as to how the Neil Gaiman-adapted Starz series will deal with Anderson’s absence: by adding another Media-type role with a very specific focus. The new character will reportedly be called... wait for it... New Media.

Starz didn’t comment for TVLine’s story, but the news seems to suggest that the network is looking to have this new version of the god be a metaphor for the latter-day phenomenon of social media—and the show is apparently aiming to cast an Asian woman in her 20s as the character. While Anderson’s Media was the embodiment of authored content like movies and TV, New Media would act as an entity empowered by engagement on networks like Twitter and Facebook. So, it’s a safe bet that this new version of Media won’t be any nicer than the last one... [TVLine]